Jeremy Grantham has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for philanthropic service to climate change research.

British-born Jeremy is a philanthropist and long-term supporter of Imperial College London. He is co-founder of asset-management firm Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo and is behind the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, which he established with his wife Hannelore in 1997.

Supporting a variety of initiatives around the world, the Foundation seeks to protect and improve the health of the global environment, providing grants that focus on climate change, environment and biodiversity conservation research.

At Imperial, the Foundation's support to the Grantham Institute - Climate Change and the Environment has helped Imperial contribute materially to credible and effective UK and international action on climate change.

Since 2008, the Institute has sought to drive forward climate and environment related research, translating this into real world impact and communicating this knowledge to help shape decision-making.

Commenting on the significance of this award, Mr Grantham said: "Simply put, climate change is the most important problem we face in the long-term.  If we fail in this, everything else we achieve will be for nothing."

Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Chair of the Grantham Institute and its founding director, said: "It was with great delight that we read about Jeremy's well-deserved CBE in the 2016 Queens’ Birthday Honours List. This is a fine recognition of his outstanding leadership in climate change action and reflects well on everyone associated with the Institutes that hold his name and, indeed, the many academics the Foundation has supported over recent years."

"Since the recent success of the Paris Agreement in aligning the world's ambitions to avoid the worst effects of climate change, this determined pursuit now continues unabated. At the Grantham Institute we are cementing these goals by educating tomorrow's leaders, researching basic scientific understanding and technology solutions, and translating this information to support policy and business leaders."

Jeremy Grantham (back, right) and Hannelore (front, left) pose with staff and students and UN climate change chief diplomat Ms Christiana Figueres on a visit in 2016

Today the Grantham Institute is a window on the climate change and environment research taking place at Imperial. Over 140 academics support and extend its work through the busy Grantham Affiliates  network. Together with staff at the Institute, they are informing and engaging the public, policymakers, business and industry leaders and NGOs.

The Institute's education programme boasts more than 70 PhD students, embedded within the NERC-funded Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet DTP, and an MSc in Climate Change, Management and Finance, which is taking applicants for October 2016.

In a new venture, the Grantham Institute is establishing the Centre for Cleantech Innovation at Imperial's White City Campus, where start-ups, entrepreneurs, small businesses and academics will work together to develop new low-carbon 'clean' technologies that will reduce the human impact on the climate.

The Foundation also provides support to partner institutes at the London School of Economics (Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment) University of Sheffield (Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures) and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (Divecha Centre for Climate Change).